Output size vs paper size in the printer properties

[Fortunate]

Dear Sir,

I've come across the words "Output Size" & "Paper Size" in the Printer properties. "Paper size" can be easily understood as there are options of various paper sizes to select. But, what is mean by "output size" and what is the difference? Sometimes, without matching the output size and the paper size in the same A4 or A3 manually, the print job simply cannot run. The default "Same as the paper size" under the output size setting is not sensitive enough. It is apparent that the printer can detect a slight difference in margin and thus, cannot perform the instruction unless both match similarly. Or, it has something to do with dot per inch (dpi) between the printer and the PC screen?

Thank you for sharing.

[Jintan]

Hello Fortunate,

Web info leaves me thinking it's an option to change the size of the original document. So you can make a small picture larger, for example.

[Fortunate]

The selection of paper size and output size is available in the normal print driver for certain Fuji Xerox printers.

When I do a right click at the two terms, they show the following:
Paper size - specifies the paper size of the file to be printed.
Output size - specifies the paper size to be used for printing.

This is confusing to users who are not familiar with the terms and cannot tell the difference. Sometimes, there is a problem in printing when the output size is not specified as A4 size although "Same as paper size" is shown there as default.

However, the selection of output size and paper size is not displayed in another global version called the multi-functioned print driver for use in Xerox printers. In this version, there are "Paper/Output" tab which allows you to select paper size, type etc under "Paper Summary" option. Another is "Layout" tab which allows you to select the paper size to be used for printing under "Fit to New Paper Size". The information for "fit to New paper size" shows "If the selected paper size is different from "Paper size" in the "Paper Select" dialog box, the paper size will be automatically scaled to this new paper size. If "Same as paper size" is selected (shown as default), the document will be printed in the designated paper size. Still, there are users who are not quite understand.

Although it is less of an issue, the user must still specify A4 paper size under "Fit to new paper size" under "Layout" tab if he really faces a problem in printing due to the output dimensions, perhaps.

For the sake of knowledge, it is useful to note that the size of the image you display in the preview window on screen is NOT the same as the print size - typically the pixels you see on the screen take up about 3 times more space than printed pixels. You can expect the printed output to be about one third of the screen display size. This is because screen resolutions vary between 70 - 100 dpi, whereas printed images are usually at around 300 dpi.